Naruto Shippuden Filler List: Every Episode You Can Skip

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Naruto crouching and doing a hand sign with, Shikamaru, and Sakura on both sides of him.

Updated Feb 17, 2026, 4:00 PM EST

Though it ranks among the most popular anime of all time, Naruto: Shippuden is infamous for its abundance of filler content. Despite the series' abundant popularity, a large percentage of the anime is composed of original material that doesn't advance the mainline plot in any significant way.

Still, given just how many filler episodes there are, it's only inevitable that some would be decent. More impressive is that a few actually enhance the story. So if fans want to get the most out of Naruto: Shippuden, then they should go in knowing what's worth watching and what's worth skipping.

Every Filler Episode of Naruto: Shippuden

And Which Are Worth Skipping

Episode #	Episode or Arc Title	Watchability?	Description
28	Beasts! Alive Again!
57 – 71	Twelve Guardian Ninja	Worth Watching	Before the Akatsuki Suppression Mission, Naruto grapples with his wind release training and learns clever applications for Shadow Clones for information gathering, with special focus on Asuma's faction, the Twelve Guardian Ninja.
89 – 112	Three-Tails’ Appearance	Essential	Focuses on the Akatsuki's efforts to capture Isobu, the Three-Tailed Beast sealed within Yagura Karatachi of the VIllage Hidden in the Mist.
144 – 151	Six-Tails Unleashed	Essential	Akatsuki mission to capture Saiken, the Six-Tailed Beast. Additional glimpse of Pain in combat along with a crucial plotline that otherwise goes understated in the main plot.
170 – 171	Big Adventure! The Quest for the Fourth Hokage's Legacy	Skippable	Flashback to the Chunin Exams Arc while Naruto learns his Summoning Jutsu, with a massive red herring in the form of the Fourth Hokage's legacy.
176 - 196	Past Arc: The Locus of Konoha	Skippable	Collection of flashbacks following the Pain's Assault Arc, with interesting glimpses at events just before Naruto Part 1. However, none of the events have bearing on the plot.
223 – 242	Paradise Life on a Boat	Skippable	Transit period to move Naruto during the buildup to the Fourth Shinobi World War, to the Land of Lightning.
257 – 260	Naruto & Sasuke flashback mini arc	Skippable	Recap of events between Sasuke's first meeting, their growing rift after Naruto's immense developments at the Chunin Exams, and climactic Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Skippable entirely if one has already watched Naruto Part 1.
271	Road to Sakura	Worth Watching	Sakura develops amnesia and encounters hijinks as Konoha helps her regain her memory. Ties into Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie and is a Sakura-focused episode, which is not common enough.
279 – 281	Fourth Shinobi World War side stories	Skippable	One-shot stories depicting battles involving Team 8, Kurotsuchi, and Deidara during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
284 – 295	Fourth Shinobi World War side stories	Skippable	One-shot stories during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
303 – 320	Fourth Shinobi World War side stories	Skippable	One-shot stories during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
347 – 361	Kakashi: Shadow of the ANBU Black Ops	Essential	Explores Kakashi's past as part of the Anbu, an underappreciated and underdeveloped black ops force among Konoha's shinobi, with additional focus on Yamato and Itachi and their functions within the force.
376	The Directive to Take the Nine Tails	Skippable	Infamously skippable filler mini-arc featuring Mecha Naruto, an automaton version of Naruto made by Orochimaru to interfere with the Akatsuki's plans to capture the Nine-Tailed Beast.
377	Naruto Vs. Mecha Naruto	Skippable	Same as episode #376, an entirely missable arc.
388	My First Friend	Worth Watching	A touching episode that explores Gaara's friendship with Naruto while giving way for the Tailed Beasts to join the battle.
389	The Adored Elder Sister	Worth Watching	While not essential, it gives an intriguing glimpse into Hinata's position within the Hyuga clan as a contested prospective heiress.
390	Hanabi's Decision	Worth Watching	A follow-up to episode #389, explores Pain's Assault through the Hyuga clan and Hanabi's perspective as she sees Hinata's grit defending Naruto.
394 – 413	In Naruto's Footsteps: The Friends' Paths	Skippable	Follows the events of the second Chunin Exams after Sasuke leaves Konoha at the end of Part 1. Fun to follow the adventures of the Konoha Eleven but not necessary for the plot.
416	The Formation of Team Minato	Worth Watching	Offers context on Kakashi and Obito's past together under Minato's leadership.
417	You'll Be My Backup	Worth Watching	Offers context on Kakashi and Obito's past together under Minato's leadership.
422 - 423	Birth of the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki side stories	Skippable	Explores Naruto teaching Konohamaru the Rasengan, connects to events of Pain's Assault, and how Konohamaru saved Naruto's old jacket, later seen in Boruto.
429 – 430	Killer B Rappūden	Worth Watching	One of the chilling and fascinating instances of the Infinite Tsukuyomi conveying excellent filler for those wishing to see more of the Jinchuriki.
431	To See That Smile, Just One More Time	Worth Watching	A rare, focused glimpse at Karin with the Infinite Tsukuyomi as a backdrop.
432 – 450	Jiraiya Shinobi Handbook: The Tale of Naruto the Hero	Skippable	Focusing on Tsunade's Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, seeing Jiraiya's new novel.
464 - 468	Ashura and Indra Arc	Essential	Exploration of Naruto and Sasuke's relationship with Ashura and Indra Otsutsuki, and by extension, Hagoromo, Sage of Six Paths as they fight Kaguya, his mother.
480 - 483	Childhood	Worth Watching	A nostalgic palate cleanser exploring characters paired up, sometimes with unexpected combinations, including Naruto & Hinata, Sasuke & Sakura, but also Gaara & Shikamaru, and Jiraiya & Kakashi.

All in all, filler accounts for 206 episodes out of Naruto: Shippuden's 500 episodes. Though not quite half, that still accounts for 41% of the entire series.

Looking at the list completely, it's easy to see where the team behind the anime ran into speed bumps when adapting the manga, with the series mostly avoiding filler until around the hundred-episode mark, where things get a bit more dire.

Both Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden are infamous for their filler content, with the original series also having around 40% of its episodes be filler. Luckily, Boruto fares quite a bit better with only 10% of that series being filler.

Why Naruto: Shippuden Has So Many Filler Episodes

Naruto Amazed with a Boruto poster in the background.

The biggest reason that Naruto: Shippuden was so reliant on filler is that it was a necessary step to avoid the anime overtaking the manga.

When Shippuden was airing, new episodes aired every week with very few exceptions. This means that the staff at Studio Pierrot would frequently need to give the manga a few weeks to complete a story arc or fight.

While this undoubtedly made the anime a bit uneven to watch when it was first airing, it helped ensure that the canon material was a fairly faithful adaptation of Masashi Kishimoto's manga.

Of course, this method of adapting manga is mostly outdated in 2026. Shorter manga runs make it far easier to adapt hits like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen on a seasonal basis. The result is a trade-off. Modern anime are better produced and feature more consistent quality, but are released less frequently than series like Naruto: Shippuden did.

When Boruto's timeskip is animated, all signs point to it abandoning the weekly release model, possibly meaning the next Naruto anime will abandon filler altogether.

Where to Stream Naruto: Shippuden in 2026

Naruto Shippuden anime visual featuring Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura

All 500 episodes of Naruto: Shippuden are available to stream on Hulu and Crunchyroll. Both services also offer every episode of the original Naruto, Naruto Spin-Off: Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals, and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

Hulu has both the original Japanese language version and the English dub, making it the best option to stream Shippuden currently.

Unfortunately, though the original Naruto series and a handful of the movies are streaming on Netflix, the streaming giant lacks Shippuden.

Luckily for fans, Naruto: Shippuden is fairly easy to watch in 2026, ensuring that the hit anime franchise remains accessible for new generations to discover.

Release Date 2007 - 2017-00-00

Network TV Tokyo

Directors Masaaki Kumagai, Naoki Horiuchi, Kazunori Mizuno, Yuki Kinoshita, Kazuya Iwata, Hiroyoshi Kishikawa, Yusuke Onoda, Hisashi Ishii, Yoshihiro Sugai, Shu Watanabe, Akitaro Daichi, Takuma Suzuki, Kiyoshi Murayama, Tsuneo Tominaga, Kunitoshi Okajima, Kenichi Nishida, Hideki Takayama, Masaharu Watanabe, Akira Shimizu, Ayataka Tanemura, Hiroaki Nishimura, Atsushi Nakagawa, Kentaro Fujita, Masayuki Matsumoto

Writers Yasuyuki Suzuki, Shin Yoshida, Junki Takegami, Katsuhiko Chiba, Yuka Miyata, Satoru Nishizono, Kento Shimoyama, Daisuke Watanabe, Hideto Tanaka, Masaya Honda